Goodbye My Love...

It has finally happened. 

We have taken Luke's beloved bottles away from him. 

He has been totally and completely in love with his bottle since he was 11 months old and weened himself. He wanted nothing more to do with Mommy's milk, and since he was completely unable to make a sippy cup work at that point, it was a bottle or nothing. For a long while now, we have allowed him to have his milk in his bottle in the morning and after lunch and ever since learning to use a sippy cup way back whenever that was, he has drunk his water and juice in the sippy. I have wanted to get him off the bottle for a while now, but have been a softie about it. He used to be a thumb sucker and LOVED his thumb. I loved that he loved his thumb, because it was such a comfort to him when nothing else was....like when he was tired of being in his stroller or car seat. He'd cry for a second then pop his thumb in his mouth, and he'd be happy. Unfortunately, when he got Foot and Mouth in September, he gave up his thumb from one day to the next. I guess the sores on his hands and in his mouth were bad enough that he was willing to give it up. Once he got better, he seemed to be lost without his comfort item (even though it was still attached to him), and the only thing that gave him a similar kind of comfort was his bottle. So I didn't push him to give that up too. Then I was going to make him give it up once we got back from Christmas/New Year's vacation, but that didn't happen either. He completely refused to drink milk out of anything other than his bottle, and at the time he was not eating much at all (I know...you don't believe me...but it's true), so I let him keep using his bottle so that I could at least be sure he was getting in that much nutrition in a day.

That is, until last week. He had strep, so while I was at the doctor's office, I mentioned that I had yet to be able to get him off the bottle. She was adamant that I bite the bullet and do it immediately (well, once he was better). I told her how much he refuses to drink milk out of a sippy cup and asked if it would be a problem if he didn't drink any for a while. She said he was so big that it wasn't a problem and that I should just be sure that he ate yogurt and cheese on the days that he didn't drink his milk. Well, folks. It's been five days now and Luke has not ingested more than a sip or two of milk. Every time we ask him to drink his milk, he either says, "No fane-chew" (no thank you) or puts the spout up to his mouth barely touching his lips, looks at us, and then puts his cup down again. We have tried bribing him with all sorts of things, and it does absolutely no good. Tomorrow we are going to try using his new favorite food, big chewy chocolate chip cookies, to get him to drink even one sip. I'm not very optimistic. Thankfully, the Big Man has only thrown a few little fits about not being allowed his most favorite thing in the world anymore. He still asks for his bottle every morning, but we just tell him no, that bottles are for babies, and he's a big boy now so he has to drink his milk in his cup. 

Obviously, he's not buying it at all.

Savoring his last bottle ever.

Look at those sad eyes. I think he knew. 

Not even the new shirt I made him could cheer him up.

Oh well. At least we are saving some good money not having to buy milk!